Question about historical accuracy in The Paradise....

[LonelyCloud]

I've been watching the first episode of The Paradise, set in an 1870's department store.

One thing that puzzled me - when Denise got offered a job in the store, she was expected to move into staff quarters in the shop with the other staff girls. I know household servants usually lived within the house they worked in, but I'd kind of assumed that that wasn't really the case in big shops. Especially for a girl whose uncle happens to live just over the road from said big shop.

Would Denise really have been expected to live in the shop's staff quarters? Anyone know?

[susiegrapevine]

Ooo interesting question will wait with you to find out the answer!

[LineRunner]

I don't the answer to that one, LonelyCloiud, but someone was having a moan on Points of View about the use of the name Denise!

[LonelyCloud]

Is Denise too modern for the Victorians, then?

[LineRunner]

IIRC, the Point Of View viewer said it dates as a name from 1920. I was trying to cook dinner in my defence, in case that's not the exact date cited but it's in that aea.

[funnypeculiar]

I discovered last week it was based on an Emile Zola novel - I hadn't realised...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_Bonheur_des_Dames.

[LonelyCloud]

Thanks for that, funnypeculiar

Looks like they've just kept the name Denise for the same character in the TV series. I guess Denise must have been in common use as a name in France before it became popular in England.

[elliephant]

As its based on a ( rather excellent) 19th century novel by Emile Zola, it would have been accurate. Certainly, where I lived it would not have been uncommon for shop workers to lodge with their employers. My local graveyard has a poignant headstone dedication to a young boy who came to work for the local menswear store and lived in a little room above the shop. He died in the flu epidemic of 1918. I also attended the funeral a few weeks ago of a wonderful old lady, a friend of my grandparents, who died aged 103. She had come to work for a local drapery, lodged with the owners and eventually inherited and kept it open until her recent death.

[Moraysohandsome]

I have been watching The Paradise on Netflix. I LOVE it. I love Moray and every character. The character's are interesting and the sets and clothes are beautiful. It is a wonderful time piece drama and I wish they would bring it back.

[SydneyCarton]

You might like this www.amazon.co.uk/Shopgirls-True-Story-Behind-Counter/dp/0091954460?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 - hope the link works! It's the book accompanying a BBC4 series from last year on the history of female shop workers. I can't remember if living in the accommodation was compulsory but it certainly wasn't unusual. A lot of the big Oxford Street stores like John Lewis, Selfridges etc had staff living quarters and there's reports of workers getting bombed out in the Blitz etc